Weekly Update–Saving Money–New Towel Week!–March 3, 2018

I don’t know where my kitchen towels are. I mean, there are a few left in the drawer, but where are the rest? Nobody knows. And, when questioned, no one, and I mean NO ONE took them or has them. So, I can only conclude that they grew legs and walked away. Or something:). But, God knew they were gone. My sweet aunt noticed last Sunday that there was a problem, and picked up a few more for me from a sale she saw. Then, when visiting my sister, she asked if I wanted the embroidered ones–her daughter was cleaning cupboards for her, and they discovered she had too many and wasn’t able to use them all. She didn’t even know I was running low. I said yes in a hurry. So, after I run them through the wash, I will have a drawer full again. It was so sweet of both of them:). I just hope THESE don’t grow legs……

I’m soaking beans for refried beans. We are going to make dinner for the college age group at church on Tuesday night, and we will do tacos. This will be our first time cooking for them, so we will know more after Tuesday about what works well and what doesn’t. They do provide us with a budget, so we aren’t going to provide much from our pantry, but I want to make the beans myself. We like them so much better. I will make a big batch, and have some for us, and some for them. Because we both have to work that day, everything will be made and chopped ahead of time, and all we will need to do is keep warm food warm in a Crock Pot, cold food cold in a cooler, and set things out when we get there. We’ve been told there is paperware there.

I’m trying to use fruits, meats and vegetables from our freezers and cupboards. Tonight, I sautéed some frozen green beans in butter, and added garlic. Yum! We ate some of the 10c/can pickled beets Rob bought last fall. I made a casserole from frozen broccoli, rice, tomato sauce, and turkey kielbasa sausage, and chicken-rice soup.

I made some turkey meatloaf. There is still ground turkey from the turkeys Rob raised at our old place. It’s time to target it and actively use it up before it gets freezer burned. I will be sorry when it is gone, but there’s not use letting it go bad. It turned out great. I also made potato salad, and am going to make coleslaw from the cabbage I picked from the garden for Family Sunday Dinner tomorrow.

I spent some time today organizing out in the canning cupboard, which is in the shop; putting away the empty jars in the right places, getting out new jars to bring into the garage for the week ahead, etc. It does take some time, but I use things more if I have a good supply within reach. So, most weekends, I bring a jar or two of each thing into the garage and have it handy for daily meal preparation and take the empties out.

I also grabbed a couple of handfuls of frozen items from the freezers and brought them in. I found a loaf of bread–yea! I thought I was out of that bargain bread I got a while back, but there it was:). There again, I use things more if I physically look in there with the intention of bringing some in–I often find items I’ve forgotten about.

What I did not find time for today was shopping, except for a gallon of milk, a bunch of celery, and 1 head of garlic. I just got those from the store that is about 1 block from my house. I have some good coupons, but didn’t use them today. So, $5.16 was my weekend shopping total so far.

I got a few more plants transplanted today. There are quite a few more to do, but I keep working on it when I have time.

Rob took Patsy fishing today. He had been told about a pond that isn’t too far from our home, and so they went today. They did not catch fish, but they did get some bites. Maybe another day…..

Our van had a bad flat tire. We took it to Les Schwab Tires and they fixed it for free, as they do when you buy your tires there. We had to wait for a while, but it’s fixed!

Patsy counted 106 buds on the daffodils she planted out front. This is the 2nd year for them. Last year, we only got a few blooms, but she has high hopes this year that those 106 buds will bloom, and is very excited. The bulbs were free from my sister’s yard. We have several tiny, yellow ones blooming now, and some pale ones as well. We recently had snow, so things slowed down a bit, but before that, we were having an early spring. So confusing. Thank goodness daffodils are hardy!

These 2 enjoyed their trip to the park very much. Such joy! Auntie Rosalie took them:)

Really loved that last photo – how fun to swing together!
You’re still harvesting from your garden? The cabbage? That’s so great.

My Les Schwab story – they’ll fix a flat on a tire that they didn’t even sell!! When I lived in WA state, I had a travel trailer. I went to use it and found the tire soft and nearly flat. I had a can of air and used it to get the tire inflated enough to get to Les Schwab. They fixed it, no problem. When I went to pay, the manager said, it’s free. I told him that I didn’t buy the tire through them. His reply – that’s ok, you’ll probably buy the next ones. And I off I went. And he was right!!

I made it through last month with $0.20 to spare on my food budget. I’m digging into the pantry and freezer. I’ll go shopping tomorrow for the store’s 10%off day and for the price matches. But I’m being very selective about what goes on my list.

20c to spare! Wow! You did great, and cut it close. If I remember right, you were working with a pretty small sum to start with, so double WOW! I’ll bet you are super happy with yourself for making it through the whole month. Is this month going to be a little easier for you?

I noticed that the cabbage coleslaw was a little strong today–it’s been holding in the garden all winter–but we put in lots of raisins and it was enjoyable. There are still 2 out there, some kale, some chard, and green onions. I’m not sure how long the cabbage will be good, but I was glad to use some today.

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, I started my limited budget mid-February because of an unexpected car repair bill. That bill was a huge wake up call about my finances.
I hope this month will be better – I just posted on another blog that I was overcharged for a purchase this morning by $5. When I went back to the store, they refunded the cost of the entire item ($14.99), Yipee. It just shows me that it does pay to play close attention.

That is a big mistake for that store! I’m glad you got your money back, though.

It’s never fun to have a large bill for car repair, of all things:). It’s not like you can just decide to not have a car, so you kind of have to pay the price! I think the unexpectedly large bills are going around!!!! Let’s hope they have all ran their course, and none of us have any in March:)

More teenager fun coming up. It’s great you have the energy (and the room when it is at your house) to help with all the teenage fun. The plants look great. I hope Patsy’s bulbs all come up. I love bulbs too but have never had great luck with them.

Well, Barbara, I don’t really have the room, but do it anyway:). We have an 1100 square foot house, with 5 of us living here, and extras often! But, we are learning to adjust to the smaller size:).

I had to chuckle. Since this is our first time making food for the college age group at church, we had details to check with the college pastor this morning. So, as we were checking, we informed him that we would be bringing all the food, warm, chopped, etc. in Crock Pots and such, right before the dinner was to be served since we both were working that day. He was so sweet. He blinked a bit, then asked how he was going to get all our dishes back to us. We said we would stay and serve it, then clean up, and take our dishes and he acted like we were giving him a gift. I’m not sure how it usually works, but that works for us:). We love being around young people, so we are pleased to be asked.

I love the embroidered towel and what a blessing to be restocked. A lot of those mysterious happenings stopped when our kids grew up—go figure. My husband typically puts away groceries in the garage freezer and fridge so when I am out there I like to just take a look in them and see what I am forgetting, too. It sure does help. Our daffodils have come and then went too quickly after some days of hard rain and then strong winds. Spring came too early and now it is cold again. We are really crossing our fingers here for the peach crop after 90% of it being lost last year. I never canned any last year because they were so expensive and now I wish I had since I have been missing those peaches all winter.

We shopped at the local surplus food grocery store on Friday. We found a bunch of nice deals like 2 pounds of whole bean coffee for $3.50, 2 ounce pkg of ground decaf for 25 cents that we are trying and may go back for a bunch more at that price, a huge canister of fajita seasoning for 4.29, seasoned pork tenderloin for $2.25 pound, and fun things like jars of roasted peppers for .69, pkt of stir fry seasonings for .25 that we really like but will not pay 1.29 for at the regular grocery, etc. Another lady and I were looking through one shelf and she said that she just loves that store and I do too. You never know what they will have and it is fun to just go and look. We also got 20 free cups of yogurt and 2 free soft cream cheese at the regular grocery store last week.

We cancelled our garbage service which will save $22 a month. We do not get credit when we are out of town and many weeks we only have two bags of garbage because we recycle and compost so we decided that we can drive it to the collection center ourselves. We set up a collection of containers in the garage for recycling and we are good to go on doing it ourselves. We had a perfectly good garbage can in the shed so no cost there.

How wonderful to receive the gifts of kitchen towels, just when you were low on them! I love those embroidered ones! Your garden is going to look so pretty when all those daffodils flower! Daffodils are annuals over here; one has to dig them up after the leaves die back and chill the bulbs.

Wow…love your comment about coleslaw with raisins…I have never thought about that before! I love how folks do different combinations with food, and that sounds like it would be great…sorta like carrots with raisins. Love the pictures of the pond and the towels!